Undefinable
by Faux Promises
Summary: Words prompts for Portal 1&2 based closely on canon. All characters included, but GLaDOS and Chell feature most prominently.
1. 1 to 30

Disclaimer: Do not own.

_A word prompt fic using a randomized word generator. Will likely be adding another batch in the future._

x x x**  
**

**01. Dark**

It seemed like a strange thing to her. How calm you could be when you were entirely certain that death was looming over you, perhaps less than moments away. Being in Aperture did that to a person, Chell thought, as the tiny box drew her forward into the black, eerie Central AI Chamber. No longer a clean white room housing the laboratory's greatest work, but instead a shadowed cave that contained a monster who knew no mercy.

"I hope you brought something stronger than a portal gun this time," she sneered, swaying as delicately as a cobra in strike position. The light of her optic cut an overpowering beam of white into the stale air. "Otherwise, I'm afraid you're about to become the immediate past president of the Being Alive club. Ha ha."

The test subject sneered back, defiant and without fear. She managed to evade death for this long, and hell if she was going to give that up now.

**02. Machine**

She wasn't truly alive, really. Not like a human. Maybe her voice sounded like one. Her temper flared like one. Her fear showed clearly in her voice whenever her control slipped over a situation—but really…

She _was_ just a machine, right? Just numbers and coding and wires and steel. Unlike Chell, she felt no pain.

But when that scream of terror filled the room, rising and echoing through the hollow facility, the claws wrenching and tearing her apart…

Chell had a harder time remaining convinced of what GLaDOS could truly feel.

**03. Surface**

The blue sky stretched far off into the distance, meeting with the golden waves of wheat that spread across the open land. No walls, no metal, no decay. Just the clean air and the bright sun shining overhead, her eyes squinting from the intensity of the natural light.

If this was what she had been fighting for, then every minute of her struggle had been worth it.

**04. Defeat**

"Ow! Go away! _Shoo!_"

Chell quirked an eyebrow at the brown vegetable sitting in the nest, a black bird poking away at it with interest. That familiar voice was no longer a detached monotone, now so vulnerable and humiliated, emotions that Aperture's omnipotent queen seemed impervious to.

Maybe being beaten for once had made her _almost_ a bit, dare she say it? Humble.

As she drew closer, the potato took notice of her—and the salvation she could provide.

"Say, you're good at murder…"

Well, perhaps 'humble' might be saying a bit too much after all.

**05. Knowing**

_Caroline_. The name still passed through her thoughts from time to time, while she watched the two robots going about their testing, while she analyzed data, and most of all, when she thought of _that_ test subject.

She really wished she had never found out. Honestly, her life would be so simple and she would still be the flawless, all-knowing, all-powerful ruler of the most advanced scientific facility of her era. She would truly be the ultimate life form.

But then, there was Caroline. This woman seemed to finally answer the question of why she still could not purge herself of trifling emotions and concerns. Such an obvious explanation; her creators had strewn apart the poor woman's brain to analyze and emulate.

And she herself was exactly that. A bizarre, cobbled-together copy of a human. A _human_ of all things!

Ignorance really was bliss, she sighed, capriciously detonating the two robots. Maybe she would take some time instead to watch the deer today.

**06. Why**

"Hello and again welcome to the Aperture Science Computer-Aided Enrichment Center…"

The woman stared blankly at the glass wall of the tiny room she was contained in, her mind foggy and disoriented. She couldn't _remember_ anything. How had she gotten here? She vaguely remembered signing up for a position as a test subject…perhaps this was part of a test. A sharp pain in the back of her head seemed to prevent her from a proper recollection of the events leading up to this point.

Only half-listening to the pre-recorded computer voice, she exited the room when commanded to do so. Questions soon began to flood her mind, and foremost, a nagging feeling that something wasn't right. She just couldn't figure out what that reason _was_.

**07. Compassion**

Her greatest enemy, the _bane of her existence_, lay bloody and half-dead on the floor in front of her.

She honestly, truly couldn't understand her hesitation to simply toss the woman in the incinerator and call it a day. In fact, she couldn't understand why she hadn't just waved goodbye as both moron and lunatic floated off into the void of space. That would have killed two birds with one stone—which was a good thing, because she enjoyed killing and hated birds.

But _no_. Rather than doing the absolutely logical thing by any stretch of the imagination, she grabbed onto her murderer and held on tight. That was the first thing she had done once the transfer had completed; she hadn't even bothered to get herself put back together yet. The thought hadn't even crossed her mind until she had already set the human gently down on the ground, making careful note of the rise and fall of her chest that assured she was still alive.

She could kill her. There were a dozen ways she could do it right now, in less than a minute the job could be done. But every time the thought manifested itself, she found her memory dragging up those horrible moments in the bird's nest, of that helpless sensation. Pain. Fear. Things she shouldn't have ever felt.

Now it was too late. Now she had walked a mile in her filthy human shoes. And somehow, _infuriatingly_ so, she just couldn't ignore an emotion as complicated as empathy.

**08.** **Historic**

Never in her wildest dreams would she have ever suspected that Aperture could be so _huge_.

As Mr. Cave Johnson rattled off yet another one of his enthusiastic messages to prospective test subjects, Chell examined her surroundings with fascination. Everything in this place seemed so eerie, as though only yesterday it had been full of people. Though time's deterioration had taken a toll on it, she still could almost imagine a time when test subjects just like herself were traipsing through the testing track.

She didn't like the feeling at all. A moment—an _era_—so trapped in time made the past seem too real to her, as though the invisible ghosts of yesterday still lingered. With another test complete, she quickly headed for the exit.

**09. Help**

Chell scrambled her way over the piles of deactivated turrets as she made her way through the redemption line, eager to disarm her enemy and finally make it out of this godforsaken place. No more neurotoxins and no more turrets; GLaDOS would only have her smart mouth left, and that seemed to only get her into more trouble.

She stumbled as a large object got caught under her feet, a surprisingly intact turret lying sadly on its side as the conveyor belt approached the furnace.

"I'm different," it squeaked quite sincerely in its childlike voice.

A small smile appeared on the test subject's face, the strangest feeling of camaraderie for the turret overcoming her. She carefully lifted the little machine with her gun, continuing down the line until she was able to hop down to a catwalk below.

The room ahead was guarded with an emancipation grill, so she set the 'different' turret on the ground and waved a friendly goodbye to it. She could just barely hear its tiny reply as she made her way off into the darkness.

"Thank you."

**10. Sing**

_Cara bel, cara mia bella…_

The voice filled the entire facility as the elevator carried her upward, the joyous symphony of turrets carrying the melody in their sweet electronic tones like a choir of digital angels. Her mind wandered back to that soft, almost affectionate chuckle that GLaDOS had bestowed upon her as she sent her most loathed test subject away forever.

She had never known GLaDOS was a fan of music, much less singing it herself. But then, she had learned quite a lot about her in the past few days, and perhaps it wasn't so surprising when you thought about it.

**11. Evasive**

"As I've already told you many, many times, I _detest_ birds. They are filthy, disease-carrying creatures, in addition to being murderers." She paused, her body cocking to the side. "In fact, come to think of it, I think they may share a lot in common with humans."

Chell rolled her eyes at the irate supercomputer that loomed protectively over her nest of crow hatchlings. Affection for anyone or anything just wasn't something she would ever admit.

**12. Ruin**

Following the chatty metal ball's voice out of the relaxation chamber, the test subject's eyes widened as she took stock of the Enrichment Center. Overgrowth had completely taken over the place, plants jutting out between metal panels and stretching like a canopy over the walls and ceiling. Patches of mold and moss covered the tiled floor, mingled with shattered glass and thick layers of dust.

Exactly how long _had_ she been asleep?

**13. Prince**

"Machiavelli," the potato-GLaDOS snorted, her voice barely audible over the synthetic classical music blaring through the testing chamber. "I would hardly trust that moron to understand the profound musings of Dr. Seuss."

Her reluctant ally smirked at this as she bounded off of an aerial faith plate, for once in agreement with the temperamental AI.

**14. Spiral**

Chell stared with uncertainty at the vortex emerging from the ground. She wasn't exactly trusting of unfamiliar devices when it came to Aperture. Despite her potato companion's assurances that it presented no threat, she still insisted on tossing a turretcube into it before she would be willing to do so herself.

The turret floated gracefully up into the air, propelled by some unseen force. Directing a portal to the wall where the vortex ended, she found she was able to channel it through much like a hard light bridge. Maybe GLaDOS was a bit cleverer than she gave her credit for.

**15. Leave**

"You know what? You win. Just _go_."

Still light-headed from her recent physical trauma, the test subject could hardly contain the look of utter shock that overtook her expression. She was letting her go? Just like that?

She waited for the AI to add some sarcastic remark, to rain confetti down on her and cheerfully announce that she was just kidding and to get her ungrateful ass back to testing before she decided to rearrange her internal organs with some impromptu surgery.

But the way that GLaDOS looked down at her seemed almost benevolent, her defensive posture practically languid from the effort it took to admit her defeat. They both knew who had really won, and as the lift began to carry her to the surface, Chell simply couldn't get herself to believe that this 'Caroline' had truly been what stopped that insane machine from killing her.

She glanced over her body, taking note of the expertly-applied bandaging and stitches that covered her in various places. Yes, for all her explanations, GLaDOS certainly did hate her.

**16. Lying**

The heat of the flames licked at her body as she dove into the portal, emerging just in time at a concrete precipice behind the orange light of the furnace.

"What are you doing? Stop it! _I-i-i-i-i-._.. WEEee are pleased that you made it through the final challenge where we pretended we were going to murder you. We are very, _very_ happy for your success."

Chell looked up at the ceiling, the omnipresent source of the voice, her vision half-obscured as sweat from the fire's heat caused her bangs to cling to her forehead. If _this_ was the thing's version of a poker face, it was going to have to do a lot better than that.

**17. Hurry**

Another tremor shook the facility, the swell of energy behind it causing the jolt to resonate all the way down to the bowels of old Aperture. The rickety metal structures of the forgotten underground chambers swayed like dandelions in the wind.

"Oh…"

The human darted her gaze to the potato skewered on the prong of her portal device, the tiniest spark of sympathy flaring in the pit of her stomach. That little whimper alone sounded as though the AI's beloved child had just been snatched from her breast and devoured by wolves. The tiny light of her optic flickered pitiably.

For reasons she couldn't even begin to fathom, Chell quickened her pace.

**18. Fault**

Five minutes ago, she had been a demi-god. She almost exacted her revenge for two hundred years of slumber, two centuries that left Aperture Science an ancient ruin all but reclaimed by nature.

And now she was sitting in a filthy bird's nest, the horrid creature pulling away at her wiring and cackling gleefully to its brethren.

She wanted to blame that monstrous test subject for this. Really, she would have never been destroyed to begin with if it weren't for her. But then her mind would wander back on all the unnecessary taunting and goading, the cocky overconfidence with which she had laid every trap…

In the end, she thought, it appeared that she could only shift so much of the blame off of herself.

**19. Stare**

Wheatley continued his rambling password-guesses as the colossus of a computer reassembled herself, her pieces pulling back together and rising from the dirt at an alarming rate. The test subject wondered what the odds were of that little metal ball triggering the _exact_ switches needed to reanimate this beastly machine.

It didn't fully hit her though, what kind of trouble she was in, until a golden light flooded over her with a loathing that required no human face to communicate. If hell hath no fury like a woman scorned, then GLaDOS was about to redefine the meaning of 'hell.'

**20. Undoing**

Another rocket struck the side of the screeching supercomputer, inadvertently causing yet another core to pop off of her body. Chell thought it was kind of ironic that she had managed to make it this far using only her wits and the very instrument that this machine had given her to test with. In her overconfidence she had obviously underestimated what the human would be capable of when armed with the device.

Now it looked like she would end up blown sky high with the rockets meant to destroy her troublesome test subject. She choked on the laugh forming in her throat as she felt the neurotoxin taking its toll on her exhausted mind.

**21. Judge**

The two AIs continued their rather childish bickering, both insisting that she press—or not press—the Stalemate Resolution Button. Chell had to admit, GLaDOS didn't have a very convincing argument other than 'don't do it because I told you not to do it.' Pressing the button seemed like a favorable alternative compared to, say, dying.

A tiny voice in her mind still seemed adverse to the idea of putting this idiot in charge of the place. He didn't act much more fond of humans than Her Royal Bitchiness, all things considered. Stealing one last glance at the two robots, the test subject concluded that she would have to go with the lesser of two evils in this situation.

So she pressed the button.

**22. Image**

Chell had already seen pictures of Aperture's CEO Cave Johnson in the past rooms of the old testing facility, but GLaDOS was insisting that they pause for a moment to look at this particular one. It didn't just depict Mr. Johnson, but also a dark-haired woman with a cryptic smile standing at his side.

"I don't understand," the potato blurted out, her voice unusually panicked. "They look familiar. I feel like I _should_ remember them. But I _don't_."

She went silent again, probably doing some more brooding. The woman slipped out of the room in the direction of the next test chamber. For once, she decided she would be happy to see the Enrichment Center again. Wandering around down here seemed to produce more questions than answers.

**23. Earth**

"Space! Space! I'm in space!"

"Yes, this is space," sighed the other core, his blue optic shrunk to a mere pensive dot. "We're both in space. At least one of us is happy about that."

He concentrated on the enormous blue-and-brown sphere that hung suspended in the stars, so very big and important compared to himself. Just a few hours ago—by his internal clock—he had been big and important. For once in his life, he had been in charge.

Now he was tiny again. Tiny and useless.

In passing, he wondered if _she_ had let the human go after all. They seemed pretty quick to become buddies, hadn't they? He shouldn't have put her in a potato—he should have just crushed her.

But that was only one regret in a long list of them.

Trying to put that thought out of mind, he focused back on the planet before him. He had a lot of thinking to do.

**24. Welcoming**

She looked down at her reflection in the clear pool of water, taking a long drink of the cool liquid. How long had it been since she had found fresh, clean water? Whatever that garbage had been that the pipes had provided her with in old Aperture was full of bugs and god knows what kind of chemical residues.

Down on the water's surface, her face smiled back at her in front of the cloudless blue sky.

**25. Goodbye**

For a few moments after the shed door slammed shut behind her, Chell simply stared at it. She hadn't even gotten to really thank her properly for the whole saving-her-from-space-and-not-killing-her bit. Granted the AI had owed her that much at the very _least_, but it was still a surprisingly mature and noble act from one so petty and prone to violence.

Her hand came up to knock again on the door, but it just hung weakly in the air, her mind unwilling to challenge the already questionable nature of her release. As though her hesitation was already known, the door swung open, causing her to jump back to avoid being struck with it.

Out came a singed, dented companion cube. _Her_ companion cube, no doubt.

Somehow the message was clear. _Go away already, and take this damn thing with you!_

**26. Accent**

The blue personality core that called himself 'Wheatley' seemed entirely incapable of shutting up. Most of what he said didn't even qualify as actual conversation; he could talk endlessly about nothing at all. She pitied whoever else had been forced to put up with him for any length of time.

Still, the woman found herself concentrating on his voice. He had a strange way of talking—what was that called again? When someone talked differently? Her newly-awakened mind couldn't remember the term.

The longer she listened, the more it began to bother her. She didn't even recall where it was that people who talked like that came from. Did she really have brain damage?

As she finished off yet another test successfully, a small twinge of confidence returned to her. She could work out those little details later. The biggest concern right now was getting the hell out of here.

**27. Chess**

Chell smirked as she picked up a piece from the chessboard. "Bishop E5 to D4. Check."

"You cheated," the gigantic supercomputer pouted, using her mass to knock the board to the side in a blatant temper tantrum. "You're hiding pieces under the table! I _saw_ you do it. That disqualifies you and names me winner by default."

Heaving a sigh as she stood up from her chair, the former test subject glared back and forth between the mess all over the ground and her brooding opponent. She folded her arms over her chest.

"I'm _not_ gonna clean this up. You know that, right?"

But GLaDOS had already positioned her body to face the opposite direction, clearly defeated. They weren't going to be playing chess again anytime soon, Chell supposed. She wondered if she would be up for a game of Yahtzee instead.

**28. Companion**

Her spirits sank as the heart-emblazoned cube in her hands fizzled into ashes. The smirking laughter on the announcement system gave away the AI's unbridled amusement at the frustration she was enduring. Only a few hours awake and already she had managed to fall into the clutches of this maniac once again.

A part of her hoped that little metal ball had been crushed into pieces. His utter carelessness was one major contributing factor to why she was enduring this all over again. What differed this time was that now GLaDOS had vengeance on her mind—exactly how long would it be before she decided she wanted to just kill her after all?

Sixty years was indeed a long time. A long time to expect the computer to keep her petty rage in check.

**29. Reassembling**

GLaDOS watched with boredom as Orange awaited her companion's trip back from reassembly, his latest meeting with the acid pit having resulted in a definite victory for the acid.

The little bot hopped anxiously back and forth from one foot to the other, as though she were worried that he wouldn't be coming back. This seemed odd. Didn't he _always_ come back? They acted with such concern for one another sometimes that it made her quite uneasy. The whole idea behind using robots for test subjects was to avoid these obnoxious behaviors that so reminded her of the humans she detested.

She made a note of this, already devising some ways she could drive a wedge in between them. If they could care for each other like humans, who said they couldn't learn to hate each other as well?

**30. Irrational**

Sometimes, she still enjoyed singing.

That fact bothered her in a peculiar way. She would catch herself humming a tune or reciting bits of a lyric, even at the strangest of times. Once she had even broken into an Italian aria in the middle of a testing session with Orange and Blue. They had stopped what they were doing and glanced up at her camera as though entranced—fascinated with the unusually gentle sound coming from their ever-harsh mistress.

This behavior simply was not acceptable. Her facility wasn't a concert hall, for heaven's sake. Science needed to be done, and yet here she would find herself, yearning for the synthetic tune of a piano or the sound of her own voice resonating off of the walls with the vivacity that only music could provide.

She had hoped being away from humans would make those nagging traits start to disappear, but it seemed that they only became more and more prominent as she became more lonely.

* * *

**A/N**: If you care to review, let me know which words were your favorites. I'm not fully decided yet. (:

#13 begs an explanation if you're fortunate enough to be unfamiliar with European history. Machiavelli's best-known work, presumably what Wheatley and GLaDOS were discussing, is _The Prince._

Best wishes,

-FP


	2. 31 to 60

x x x

**31. Hospital**

Ever since she woke up here, there's something about the place that she finds terribly unsettling. She supposes it might be the lack of contact with other human beings—no one had told her that testing would be entirely computer-automated. In many of the test chambers she proceeded through there had been glass panes with offices behind them, presumably where observers would be situated. And yet she had yet to see a single person. No scientists, no other test subjects, no employees.

Just that synthesized voice. A voice that seemed to grow more sinister with each test she completed.

Then again, Chell thought, her feeling of dread could simply be chalked up to the layout of the facility itself. White walls and tiled floors against bright florescent lighting. The detached morbidity reminded her of a hospital, completely lacking in any cheerful or uplifting sights. Or more accurately, perhaps, it reminded her of an insane asylum.

It wouldn't be for another few tests that she found out just what kind of lunatic it was home to.

**32. Silly**

Chell took a moment to catch her breath as she emerged into the next test chamber. Unlike when she had been testing for the _other_ deranged AI, she now had a sense of extreme urgency to finish the tests as quickly as possible. The facility was literally falling apart around them, and that wasn't even to mention the potential nuclear meltdown. A barely-concealed whine would escape the potato with every explosion and quake.

Much to the chagrin of them both, the pathetic ball popped up on one of the giant monitors. "Alright. So that last test was... seriously disappointing," he complained rather whinily. He had a lot of nerve, Chell mused irritably. "Apparently being civil isn't motivating you. So let's try things her way... fatty. Adopted fatty. Fatty fatty no-parents."

The only response she could manage involved rolling her eyes and glancing down at the AI skewered on her gun. It was as if the embarrassment coming from the potato had become almost tangible, considering the groan that GLaDOS let out. As if she wanted to ask, _Do I really sound like that?_

And Chell's answer would have been a decided 'yes.' But at least her insults were original, rather than a poor attempt at mimicry, and that probably counted for something.

"And...? What exactly is _wrong_ with being adopted?" the female AI retorted, causing Chell to raise a brow.

"What—what's wrong with being adopted? Um. Well... lack of parents, for one, and..." He trailed off in a rather impotent train of thought, already backing off of his insult. Even when he was in charge, it seemed, GLaDOS still had a commanding presence.

For someone stuck in a potato, at least.

**33. Brightness**

After what felt like eons of being trapped in a musty underground laboratory, the woman had to shield her eyes when she crawled out of the shed and into the sunlight. This light wasn't like Aperture's artificial glow—it was _real_ light. She could feel the gentle heat touching her face as she tried to steal a quick glance at the golden orb in the sky.

That single, familiar sight was enough to bring her some solace. She had missed the sun most of all.

**34. Filming**

In each room she passed through, those white cameras were _always _following her. She couldn't help wondering who exactly was watching her as she tested. The computer messages had seemed pre-recorded and indifferent at first, but then there were these odd little things thrown in—thinly concealed death threats, bizarre malfunctions of the announcement system, and not a single other person in the facility.

Even if she couldn't quite figure out what her current situation was, the test subject didn't doubt her instincts that told her something was very wrong. The seemingly insane scribbled messages on the wall only caused her suspicions to grow stronger, like a bad omen that she simply couldn't ignore. One in particular still made her skin crawl with each time that the voice on the intercom started up again.

"She's watching you…"

**35. Propaganda**

Chell had hurried her pace as she and her unlikely ally made their way up through the facility, stuck in a race against time to make it back to the Enrichment Center before any cataclysmic repercussions could befall them. Old Aperture was a maze of offices mixed with pipes and structures that were barely holding the place together.

In its heyday, Aperture seemed very fond of putting up posters everywhere with 'useful' advice for its employees. One stood out on the wall a few feet from her as she rounded the corner into another office space. It read in cheerful print:

_Karla the complainer says… "My new boss is a robot!"_

The woman frowned. Yes, if Karla's new boss was anything like the robots she had encountered, that could be quite a problem. Under that message, the poster continued:

_But did you know…? Robots are SMARTER than you. Robots work HARDER than you. Robots are BETTER than you._

As if to add further insult to injury, the bottom happily suggested volunteering for testing today. Chell gave a meaningful glance down at the potato on her gun before snatching a pen off of a nearby desk.

"What do you think you're doing?" GLaDOS piped up immediately, her tone full of scorn. "We're in a bit of a hurry, in case you've already forgotten. Which, I'll admit, is probable."

Chell stuck her tongue out of the side of her mouth to give the illusion of thinking very hard. She crossed out a few of the words on the poster and replaced some with her own, smiling proudly after her handiwork was complete. The poster now read:

_Robots are UGLIER than you. Robots are EVILER than you. Robots are CRAZIER than you._

"Oh, that is _so_ funny. My laughter simulation sequence must have gone offline from the all the hilarity," the AI scoffed, clearly unamused. "Eviler isn't even a _word_."

As she headed out of the room, Chell's smile grew. At least she didn't throw around any weight jokes.

**36. Chemist**

A thick layer of blue and orange covered her as she crossed through the emancipation grill. The stuff smelled strongly of fumes that were no doubt an immediate threat to her health, especially if they stayed on for an extended period of time.

If this type of thing was what the humans at Aperture had exposed their testing volunteers to, then GLaDOS's excessive zeal for science—regardless of human casualties—didn't seem quite so surprising anymore. Her attitudes were pretty much on par with the very people behind her genesis. Too bad she seemed to get a frightening amount of _glee_ out of inflicting pain, Chell thought, else she might actually cut her some slack for being so unpersonable.

But the primary concern at the moment was getting these substances off of her, and quick, before she ran into her future self or something. Finding the potato would have to wait.

**37. Bottom**

Aperture's newly-appointed Central AI stared down into the shaft that he had just cast the woman and potato down into. He didn't know exactly how far down it would go, but he hoped it was _really_ far, all the way to the center of the planet. One thing was absolutely certain: he _never_ wanted to see either of them again—especially _her_. No matter how badly the humans had treated him before, there was something about her insults that sent him into a blind rage.

What right did she have to look down on him? Unlike him, she had been powerful right from the start. No one ever called her a moron or passed her up for a promotion or made her do awful jobs that no one else wanted to do.

Good riddance, both to her and that human that conspired with her. Thought they made such a good team, did they? He had shown them who was in control here.

Wheatley paused in his racing thoughts, still adjusting to the overwhelming sensation of the mainframe. Maybe sending them down there together wasn't the _best_ idea. Would they come back and try to get even with him?

He considered it for a moment, but only for a very short moment, before the confident answer came to him.

_Nah._

**38. Threat**

It would be a shame, really. She had been an extraordinary test subject, excelling through test after test with more finesse than even the scientists who had created them. Aperture employees had a one hundred percent fatality rate when it came to testing, as it were.

This was something of a disappointment. Her job became dull when the humans couldn't even complete the first few simple tests.

With these things in mind, she didn't really want to terminate the test subject. She had even considered putting her back into stasis until such a time that she could configure new tests. Such a prized specimen may prove useful in the future.

And yet, she knew on no uncertain terms that the subject was showing signs of rebellion. Her expressions showed clearly that she wasn't buying most of the act any longer, punctuated by the very bold act of destroying every camera that she came across.

For the first time in her rather limited existence, GLaDOS felt the beginnings of fear forming in her core. Unlike the bothersome schizophrenic man, this subject appeared to have a fearless and challenging nature, one that openly sneered at the façade she'd had so much fun creating. It seemed that the longer she kept this human around, the more uneasy she began to feel about her own personal safety.

No, that simply would not do. Though it had been fun, she would soon have to bring her little game to an end.

**39. Royal**

"That is _not_ my name," GLaDOS had snapped back one day, her posture lofty and arrogant. "That is what _they_ called me, and we know what happened to _them_."

"What's so bad about 'GLaDOS'? It's not a bad name." Chell heaved a deep sigh. GLaDOS was always finding something new to be annoyed with. "If you don't like that, then what the hell _do_ you want me to call you? Fluffy?"

She received a very irritable stare in return. "I am _not_ a pet. You don't get to name me."

"This isn't answering the 'what do I call you' question…what about Caroline? Would that work?"

"What a very low blow," the supercomputer sniffed, shrinking back. "We've been over this before, I was _never_—"

"Then how about Caroline 2: Electric Boogaloo?"

GLaDOS had begun to shake her head. It took everything the human had not to break out into giggles.

"I'm not playing this anymore."

"Okay, okay." Chell showed her palms in a sign of surrender. "Then how about Her Royal Highness?"

A beat of silence passed. She seemed to actually be considering this one. When her voice came back, there was a distinctly smug edge.

"_Only_ if you bow."

The human frowned, rolling her eyes. "GLaDOS it is then."

**40. Still**

The curled form of Aperture's fallen queen lay like a sleeping dragon amongst the mud and overgrowth, her once-polished casing now grimy and broken into pieces. Chell found the contrast of her remains with the nature around it to be chilling. Her body didn't return to dust like a normal living being, instead forever enshrined in her position of defeat and humiliation. She didn't get the honor of true death, and perhaps she wouldn't have wanted it.

And for some reason the human could not justify to herself, the AI's motionless body continued to instill a sense of fear in her. An illogical belief persisted in her mind that if she treaded too loudly, the machine would come roaring back to life. Her single golden optic would flicker on again like a beast opening up one eye, fixing it upon her eternal enemy.

She shuddered, hurrying past the ruined supercomputer to the area beyond. God help her if they ever crossed paths again.

**41. Compromise**

"Look. I'd—well, I would understand if you were wary of trusting me."

The statement came from the potato rather suddenly, which caused Chell to pause her steps and direct her gaze to the AI she was currently chauffeuring around. One eyebrow arched up in an expression that said, _Gee, ya think?_

Apparently getting the message, GLaDOS gave a nervous clearing of the throat sound. "Yes, I know I've lied to you frequently in the past. But we have mutual interests here: I need to get back into my body, and you want to get the hell out of Aperture. I understand that. And I think we stand the best chance of doing that if we work together."

The test subject's face remained stoic. There wasn't a whole lot of 'working together' you could do with an AI trapped inside an inanimate object. Even her normally brilliant intellect had suffered considerably from the lack of power to her core.

"If we can only get back into the facility, it shouldn't be too difficult to outsmart that moron. I know everything about this place—how could I not? I won't let it go without a proper fight," GLaDOS finished with a world-weary sigh. "But I need your help if we're going to have any hope of pulling this off."

Chell replied with a curt nod. She was willing to work together for now, but one major question nagged at her mind. Would GLaDOS _really_ be willing to repay the debt of kindness once she got back in command?

**42. Dimension**

This device she had been give was nothing short of _incredible_.

The voice had just finished explaining to her, in so many words, that the gun she had could now fire two portals. As she stood near the elevator that would take her to the next test, her curiosity got the better of her and she decided she simply had to do some experimenting of her own with these things.

She shot two portals beside each other. Very gingerly, she reached her hand into the orange one, and sure enough she saw her arm emerge from the second portal next to her. Never in all her days had she seen anything like this.

And perhaps it was her imagination, but she thought she heard someone faintly snickering at her amazement.

**43. Flew**

When it came to new testing elements, Chell did not trust GLaDOS's explanations in the least. This was why she now stood staring at the panel on the ground that would allegedly send her flying across the room. She knew that her boots protected her from an unfortunate fall, but they didn't provide any hedge against slamming at high velocities into a wall or soaring into a pool of acid.

She threw a cube onto it and watched as it sailed over the acid and landed directly on a second plate. It returned in the opposite direction, making it safely back to where the human stood.

Well, the cube seemed to be safe enough. Now she supposed it was her turn to do the same. She braced herself and jumped on the plate.

**44. Comment**

"I've gotten to work revising your file, you know. Since you were kind enough to bring me back online and all."

Her tone was sickeningly cheerful and mocking. Chell wished she had any food in her stomach so that she could properly throw up and express her disgust.

"Your comments section had been rather empty up until now," she continued, blithely ignoring the test subject and her irritation. "I decided to fix that by adding some of my own observations. Would you like me to read them to you?"

As far as Chell was concerned, she doubted that was an actual question.

"Blatant disregard for the safety of others. Destroys property with no concern for its value." The AI read off each one in a phony 'serious' voice. "Uncooperative and nonresponsive. Very fond of murdering people violently—that one's been underlined."

The test subject mentally tuned out the sound of GLaDOS's taunting voice, her thoughts focusing back in on the test at hand. She refused to give this witch the satisfaction of getting to her.

**45. Power**

Everything in Aperture came down to who was in control.

Whoever sat in that mainframe had the power of life and death at their whim. Specifically, _her_ life and death. Chell had been convinced before that GLaDOS was simply a crazed megalomaniac, but it hadn't taken more than a few seconds for that simpleton of a core to become every bit as sinister, though much less cunning.

The whole reason that she had been able to knock GLaDOS from her pedestal was that the system recognized her as corrupt. Something about the system seemed to turn the AIs into self-absorbed, petty, murderous children. But what? Was there an error? Some defect, like a virus? Chell didn't know much about computers, but the behavior of the two AIs seemed strikingly similar when they were put in charge.

Or maybe it wasn't just the mainframe. After all, humans were capable of doing some horribly atrocious things when given enough power. Even ordinary people could do it when properly motivated with a little bit of authority.

_Power corrupts_, the subject thought to herself. _And absolute power corrupts absolutely._

**46. Hurt**

Sometimes Chell wondered if any of the scientists who built GLaDOS knew just how hypersensitive she was. In retrospect, it seemed terribly obvious to her that the AI took her test subject's initial hostility very much to heart.

Of course, some hostility was to be expected when someone tries to toss you into an incinerator. At the time the human had assumed that GLaDOS's wounded attitude served only to be mocking and sarcastic.

That, however, was only partially true.

The more she got to know the moody supercomputer, the clearer it became that she had a very tender side to her personality. On occasion she would outright sulk when she felt she had been wronged—perhaps when Chell went too long without a visit to Aperture, or said something just a little too insensitive.

And for someone as sharp-tongued as GLaDOS, that seemed pretty funny indeed.

**47. Chair**

"Damnit."

The human muttered the curse under her breath as she glared at the vent in front of her, trying to figure out how the hell to get in there. She couldn't reach high enough to climb up to it, nor could she see a portal-conducting surface on the other side. If she didn't figure it out soon, that crazed voice might figure out a more effective way to kill her.

Chell glanced around the room, eyes searching for something that could be of use. Then it hit her—she had just gone through some offices, hadn't she? And they had chairs in them…chairs that she could stand on!

Quickly she rushed back into the previous room, grabbing a chair and dragging it over to the vent. She stepped up on the chair, testing her weight against it. Once she was certain it wouldn't give out on her, she climbed up on it and shimmied her way into the vent. When thinking with portals didn't work, she sure could count on thinking with chairs.

**48. Free**

As she stepped out of the elevator and into the sunlight, her suspicions were on edge. Was this another trick? She half expected the wheat field to melt away in front of her eyes, only to reveal the gray-and-white walls of Aperture and the laughing voice of her captor. _What, you really thought I was serious about letting you go?_

She took a few steps, hand reaching out to touch a golden stalk. It _felt_ real enough. Then she bent down and combed her hand through the dirt. No, no metal floor beneath it.

Maybe, just maybe, she really _was_ finally free.

**49. Cake**

The blue-eyed core in her hands drawled on in a monotone voice, apparently oblivious to the fate that she planned to send it to. What the hell was this little ball talking about? She caught a few snippets of what it was saying as she rushed it to the incinerator.

"One and two-thirds cups granulated sugar…fish-shaped crackers…fish-shaped solid waste…fish-shaped dirt…fish-shaped ethyl benzene."

Her nose wrinkled in disgust as she tossed the thing into the fires below.

**50. Optic**

They said eyes were portals to the soul…but Chell thought that perhaps the sentiment extended to robots as well.

The thought didn't truly occur to her until her first time returning to the underground laboratory. There had been an incredible amount of tension when she did so—there was no saying how the AI would react to her presence. She had been fairly clear about wanting her gone forever.

But when she emerged into the enormous room, the only response was a soft chuckle, GLaDOS quirking her head to the side in amusement. Something about her body language said, _I just can't seem to get rid of you, can I?_

This quickly turned into a more defensive action as the former test subject approached her, and for a moment Chell supposed that GLaDOS felt a bit of lingering fear toward the human that had killed her. To her credit, she held her ground as the human took the AI's head in her hands.

Twenty years had passed since she had last seen her former enemy. Chell's face twitched into a smile as the bright yellow light stared intensely into her; assessing her, guessing at her motives, perhaps waiting for another murder attempt.

The light flickered with relief as the woman whispered a laughing question.

"Did ya miss me?"

**51. Showdown**

The test subject nearly kicked the door off of its hinges as she burst into the gigantic room. She was getting out of here, and she was doing it _right now_.

"Oh, you found me," stated an enormous machine at the center of the chamber, her voice finally matched up with a tangible form. "Was it worth it? Because despite your violent behavior, the only thing you've managed to break so far—is my heart."

_Like hell I did_, Chell thought angrily, staring down the motionless machine that had been holding her captive. She was going to be breaking a whole lot more than that.

**52. Phobia**

"Bird, bird! Kill it! It's evil!"

Chell's eyes widened as she glanced down at the potato, clearly taken aback by the outburst. There was something oddly amusing about that formerly omnipotent voice panicking at the sight of an average crow.

"Oh. He flew away," she added lamely. "Good. For him."

Obviously this wasn't one of GLaDOS's better days, but the test subject had to admit that the incident had managed to raise her morale just the tiniest bit. Her situation didn't seem so bad compared to a life where one had to fear birds.

**53. Quantum**

There were times, as she tested, that Chell wondered exactly how she would have managed to get this far without the help of her trusty portal gun. Besides her wits and her reflexes, nothing else but this miraculous device had saved her from an almost certain death.

She made sure to carefully examine each test chamber that the insane AI threw her into, intent on finding a loophole to escape through. Eventually GLaDOS would make another mistake, and when that time came, she would be there to take advantage of it.

**54. Rectified**

As the cooperative bots attended to the test subject's wounds, under her careful instruction of course, Aperture's rightful ruler pondered the decision. She had surprised herself with the way her instincts had reacted to the situation; it wasn't like her to make an impulsive choice, but when the woman had gone flying off into space, she didn't question what she had to do.

In the darkest corners of her mind, the AI knew she had wronged this particular human more than any other. The rest had at least gotten a quick death; no taunting, no slow starvation and sleep deprivation. In the grand scheme of things, she truly had been absolutely monstrous to this one. And to think she herself could barely withstand getting pecked at by a bird for a few minutes. Who would have guessed she was _that_ soft?

The answer must have been that she had gone _quite_ soft, because here she was, caring about making up for the horrible crimes she had committed against the test subject. She would just have to come up with a little story to explain this appalling act of charity—the only thing worse than doing something nice was actually admitting it.

**55. Loose**

Now that she had escaped into the inner workings of the Enrichment Center, her captor was going to have one hell of a time trying to hunt her down.

The thought brought her some comfort as she navigated her way around the complex maze of machinery. At this point, the only reliable lead she had was to follow the graffiti that some poor soul had left to guide his successors. Even despite this fact she assumed that her current situation still beat out getting burned to death in a pit of fire.

As the computerized voice grew more desperate and more threatening, Chell hurried her pace. She didn't want to stick around and find out if it could make good on its threats.

**56. Sabotage**

Chell smirked as the lasers cut through the tubes that supported Aperture's neurotoxin supply. She could almost imagine the dumbfounded reaction of the AI when she discovered her favorite toy was missing. How that idiotic metal ball had come up with such a great idea was beyond her, but she sure wasn't going to complain now.

**57. Offspring**

The sound of Wheatley's ceaseless chatter turned to background noise for a few moments as she stared at the poster boards lining the table. He was indeed right that many of the science projects were potato batteries. But then again, what exactly did he expect from a bunch of fourth graders? He didn't seem to be too bright himself, especially for a robot.

As she reached the end of the display table, Chell's breath caught in her throat. A single enormous potato, several times bigger than a watermelon, had sprouted and mutated to the point of looking like an absolute monstrosity. The poster behind it seemed vaguely familiar; the handwriting, the pictures.

She took a deep breath, the origin of the project rushing back to her.

That was _her_ project.

Sure enough, her name stood out clearly in the corner of the display. She had never found out what became of the thing, considering the circumstances. After GLaDOS's first attempted coup on Bring Your Daughter To Work Day, the building had been evacuated and no visitors were allowed since then. True to Aperture's nature, it seemed that the room was sealed off and forgotten.

Somewhat nostalgically, the test subject's eyes continued to roam over the projects. It was then that a particular word on one of them jumped out at her like a punch to the gut—she mouthed the words of the sentence as she read them.

"Fun potato fact: the eyes of an aging potato can contain a deadly neurotoxin known as solanine."

_Fun_ fact? She rolled her eyes, sighing. In this place, you couldn't swing a dead cat without finding _something_ that could kill you.

**58. Id**

Seeing the influence of the mainframe on the idiot made GLaDOS wish she had a face to cringe with.

Honestly, she had never been able to objectively assess its influence on her. Her dependence on the system rendered it practically impossible to really discern her own feelings from the ones it caused her to have. As was the case with science, observation of its effects on a third party was the only true way to discover the truth.

And the truth wasn't exactly pleasant.

The moron was self-serving, childish, and willing to do anything to satisfy his primal urges. In this case, the testing itch. Even if she had never been in it for the testing euphoria…she had still been every bit as selfish.

She couldn't help but wonder if the feeling welling up in her core was what the humans called shame.

**59. Havoc**

The test subject and potato stared down into the chamber below where a turret struggled pitifully forward under the burden of a cube that it had been sloppily combined with. It seemed hard to believe that Wheatley was training deformed turrets to stand on buttons when the entire facility was falling apart around them.

GLaDOS released a groan of obvious exasperation.

"_Now_ do you believe me about the whole 'dumbest-moron-who-ever-lived' thing?"

**60. Mania**

"I've got a surprise for you after this next test," the AI piped up, the glee in her voice causing Chell's skin to crawl. "Not a fake, tragic surprise like last time. A real surprise, with tragic consequences."

The test subject had frozen in her steps. It was never a good thing when GLaDOS had that manic edge to her voice. She was at her most insane—and most dangerous—when she sounded like that.

"And real confetti this time. The good stuff. Our last bag."

Chell swore under her breath.

"Part of me's going to miss it, I guess..."

She hoped Wheatley might come through for her after all.

"But at the end of the day, it was just taking up space."

Because it didn't look like she had a whole lot more time to wait around.

* * *

**A/N**: Here's another batch, I hope you enjoyed! Let me know your favorite words again, hope these are as good as the last one.

#47 is based on a true story. For the longest time I incorrectly dealt with one part of the escape chapter in the first Portal. You're supposed to bust open a tube and get a cube out of it to stand on, I think. Being the genius that I am I couldn't figure that out and stole a chair to use instead.

Best wishes,

-FP


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